Automatic route tagging of BGP next-hop routes in IGP

ABSTRACT

A technique configures an intermediate network node to automatically determine whether a route advertised by a routing protocol is important for fast convergence in a computer network. As used herein, an important route needed for fast convergence is a route advertised by the routing protocol, such as an exterior gateway routing protocol (EGP) process executing on the node, as a next-hop address, since external connectivity relies on such a route. Notably, the EGP process interacts with an interior gateway routing protocol (IGP) process executing on the node to identify the route as an important route. Identification of an important route, in turn, allows IGP to process the route in a high priority fashion, thereby facilitating fast convergence.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present invention is related to the following commonly assigned U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/025,251 titled, Automatic Prioritizationof BGP Next-Hop in IGP Convergence, filed herewith and herebyincorporated by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates generally to computer networks, and, morespecifically, to a technique for enhancing convergence in a computernetwork.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Data communication in a computer network involves the exchange of databetween two or more entities interconnected by communication links andsubnetworks (subnets). These entities are typically software programsexecuting on hardware computer platforms, such as end nodes andintermediate network nodes. The intermediate network nodes interconnectthe communication links and subnets to enable transmission is of databetween the end nodes, such as personal computers or workstations. Alocal area network (LAN) is an example of a subnet that providesrelatively short distance communication among the interconnected nodes,whereas a wide area network (WAN) enables long distance communicationover links provided by public or private telecommunications facilities.The Internet is an example of a WAN that connects disparate computernetworks throughout the world, providing global communication betweennodes on various networks.

Communication software executing on the nodes correlate and manage datacommunication with other nodes. The nodes typically communicate byexchanging discrete messages or packets of data according to predefinedprotocols, such as the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol(TCP/IP). In this context, a protocol consists of a set of rulesdefining how the nodes interact with each other. In addition, networkrouting software executing on the intermediate nodes allow expansion ofcommunication to other nodes. Collectively, these hardware and softwarecomponents comprise a collection of computer networks.

Since management of computer networks can prove burdensome, smallergroups of one or more computer networks can be maintained as separaterouting domains or autonomous systems (ASes). In this context, a routingdomain is broadly construed as a collection of interconnected nodeswithin a common address space (e.g., a level, area or AS), and an AS isa routing domain managed by a single administrative entity, such as acompany, an academic institution or a branch of government. Tointerconnect dispersed networks and/or provide Internet connectivity,many organizations rely on the infrastructure and facilities of InternetService Providers (ISPs). An ISP is an example of an AS that typicallyowns one or more “backbone” networks configured to provide high-speedconnection to the Internet. To interconnect private routing domains thatare geographically diverse, an organization (customer) may subscribe toone or more ISPs and couple its private domain networks to the ISP'sequipment. Here, an intermediate network node, such as a switch orrouter, may be utilized to interconnect a plurality of private networksto an IP backbone network.

ISP backbone networks generally require fast convergence in order toprovide a reliable service to its customers. Convergence, in thiscontext, denotes the ability of a router or network to react to failuresor, more generally, to network events and to recover from those failuresin order to have minimal disruption time. Examples of such failuresinclude link or node failures. Fast convergence thus involves theability of the ISP backbone networks to react very quickly to such linkand node failures to thereby reroute traffic over alternate paths and,thus, minimize service disruption.

A main component of fast convergence in a router is a routinginformation base (RIB). The RIB is a process that manages a routingtable that holds many (e.g., thousands) of routes computed by differentprotocols, including both interior gateway protocols (IGP) and exteriorgateway protocols (EGP). IGP protocols, such as conventional link-stateprotocols, are intra-domain routing protocols that define the mannerwith which routing information and network-topology information areexchanged and processed in a routing domain, such as an ISP backbonenetwork. Examples of conventional link-state protocols include, but arenot limited to, the Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) protocol and theIntermediate-System-to-Intermediate-System (ISIS) protocol. The OSPFprotocol is described in more detail in Request for Comments (RFC) 2328,entitled OSPF Version 2, dated April 1998, which is incorporated hereinby reference in its entirety. The ISIS protocol is described in moredetail in RFC 1195, entitled Use of OSI IS-IS for Routing in TCP/IP andDual Environments, dated December 1990, which is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

Each router running a link-state protocol (i.e., IGP) maintains anidentical link-state database (LSDB) describing the topology of therouting domain. Each piece of the LSDB is a particular router's localstate, e.g., the router's usable interfaces and reachable neighbors oradjacencies. As used herein, neighboring routers (or “neighbors”) aretwo routers that have interfaces to a common network, wherein aninterface is a connection between a router and one of its attachednetworks. Moreover, an adjacency is a relationship formed betweenselected neighbors for the purpose of exchanging routing information andabstracting the network topology. One or more router adjacencies may beestablished over an interface. Each router distributes its local statethroughout the domain in accordance with an initial LSDB synchronizationprocess and a conventional flooding algorithm.

In order to guarantee convergence of a link-state protocol, link-stateprotocol data units (PDUs) that originate after an initial LSDBsynchronization between neighbors is completed are delivered to allrouters within the flooding scope limits. The PDUs are used to exchangerouting information between interconnected routers. The flooding scopelimits may comprise an area, a level or the entire AS, depending on theprotocol and the type of link-state PDU. An area or level is acollection or group of contiguous networks and nodes (hosts), togetherwith routers having interfaces to any of the included networks. Eacharea/level runs a separate copy of the link-state routing algorithm and,thus, has its own LSDB. In the case of OSPF, the PDU is a link stateadvertisement (LSA) comprising a unit of data describing the local stateof a router or network, whereas in the case of ISIS, the PDU is a linkstate packet (LSP). As used herein, a LSA generally describes anymessage used by an IGP process to communicate routing information amongthe nodes, such that the collected LSAs of all routers and networks formthe LSDB for the particular link-state protocol.

Broadly stated, the IGP process executing in a sending router typicallygenerates and disseminates a LSA whose routing information includes alist of the node's neighbors and one or more “cost” values associatedwith each neighbor. A cost value associated with a neighbor is anarbitrary metric used to determine the relative ease/burden ofcommunicating with that router. For instance, the cost value may bemeasured in terms of the number of hops required to reach the neighbor,the average time for a packet to reach the neighbor, and/or the amountof network traffic or available bandwidth over a communication linkcoupled to the neighbor.

LSAs are typically transmitted (“advertised”) among the routers untileach router can construct the same “view” of the network topology byaggregating the received lists of neighbors and cost values. The IGPprocess advertises routes internal to the routing domain (“internalroutes”) via LSAs that typically comprise the routers' loopbackaddresses as well as interface/link addresses. A loopback address is atype of “virtual” interface identifier of the router that is stable andalways available (does not fail) and, as such, is advertised instead ofa physical interface address to ensure that the router can always reachits neighbor. Each router may input this received routing information toa “shortest path first” (SPF) calculation that determines thelowest-cost network paths that couple the router with each of the othernetwork nodes. The well-known Dijkstra algorithm is a conventionaltechnique for performing such a SPF calculation, as described in moredetail in Section 12.2.4 of the text book Interconnections SecondEdition, by Radia Perlman, published September 1999.

The routers typically have a topology table that contains alldestinations advertised by neighbors. Each entry in the topology tableincludes the destination address and a list of neighbors that haveadvertised the destination. For each neighbor, the entry records theadvertised metric, which the neighbor stores in its routing table. Themetric that the router uses to reach the destination is also associatedwith the destination. The metric that the router uses in the routingtable, and to advertise to other routers, is the sum of thebest-advertised metric from all neighbors and the link cost to the bestneighbor. An example of a topology table is the LSDB having a map ofevery router, its links and the states of those links in the routingdomain. The LSDB also has a map of every network and every path to eachnetwork in the routing domain.

Specifically, the LSA is processed by the IGP process of a receivingrouter and provided to the RIB so that it can process the advertisement(along with other routing information) to determine best paths forpurposes of populating a forwarding table of a forwarding informationbase (FIB). In a link state protocol, such as ISIS and OSPF, the routerthat is directly affected by a failure (i.e., closest to the failure)advertises such failure via the LSA to the rest of the network. Inresponse, each router in the network computes a new network topologyand, thus, a new path around the failure. To achieve fast convergence,the IGP process of each router re-computes its topology table andupdates the routing table to reflect the topology change. Morespecifically, the SPF calculation is applied to the contents of the LSDBto compute a shortest path to each destination network. To that end, thealgorithm prunes the database of alternate paths and creates a loop-freeshortest path tree (SPT) of the topological routing domain. The routingtable is then updated to correlate destination nodes with networkinterfaces associated with the lowest-cost paths to reach those nodes,as determined by the SPF calculation.

A plurality of interconnected ASes may be configured to exchangemessages in accordance with an EGP, such as the Border Gateway Protocolversion 4 (BGP). To implement the BGP protocol, each routing domain(e.g., AS) includes at least one “border” router through which itcommunicates with other, interconnected ASes. Before transmitting suchmessages, however, the routers cooperate to establish a logical “peer”connection (session). BGP is an inter-domain routing protocol thatgenerally operates over a reliable transport protocol, such as TCP, toestablish a TCP connection/session; any two border routers that haveopened a TCP connection (session) to each other for the purpose ofexchanging routing information are known as peers or neighbors. BGPperforms routing between ASes by exchanging routing (reachability)information among neighbors of the systems.

The routing information exchanged by BGP neighbors typically includesdestination address prefixes, i.e., the portions of destinationaddresses used by the routing protocol to render routing (“next hop”)decisions, and associated path attributes. Examples of such destinationaddresses include Internet Protocol (IP) version 4 (IPv4) and version 6(IPv6) addresses, while an example of a path attribute is a next-hopaddress. Note that the combination of a set of path attributes and aprefix is referred to as a “route”; the terms “route” and “path” may beused interchangeably herein. The BGP routing protocol is well known anddescribed in detail in Request For Comments (RFC) 1771, by Y. Rekhterand T. Li (1995), Internet Draft<draft-ietf-idr-bgp4-20.txt> titled, ABorder Gateway Protocol 4 (BGP-4) by Y. Rekhter and T. Li (April 2003)and Interconnections, Bridges and Routers, by R. Perlman, published byAddison Wesley Publishing Company, at pages 323-329 (1992), alldisclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

Two BGP-enabled routers (i.e., BGP speakers) that are not in the same ASuse external BGP (eBGP) to exchange routes. Internal BGP (iBGP) is aform of BGP that exchanges routes among iBGP neighbors within an AS. BGPspeakers within an AS are typically connected via a fully meshed iBGPsession arrangement to ensure that all BGP speakers receive routeupdates from the other BGP speakers in the AS. When a BGP speakerreceives updates from multiple ASes that describe different paths to thesame destination, the speaker chooses a single best path for reachingthat destination (prefix). Once chosen, the speaker uses BGP topropagate that best path to its neighbors. The decision is based on thevalue of attributes, such as next-hop, contained in a BGP update messageand other BGP-configurable factors. In this context, the BGP next-hopattribute is the network (IP) address of the next hop (neighbor) used toreach the destination prefix.

More specifically, each route advertised by BGP must have a next hopaddress that is reachable through IGP in order for that route to beconsidered valid. That is, a valid BGP route must contain an attribute(such as a BGP next-hop address) that, in turn, must exist in therouting table of the router through IGP. Both BGP and IGP (OSPF, ISIS)processes executing on a router provide routes (best paths per prefixes)to the RIB; however, among the prefixes provided by IGP that the RIBinstalls into the routing table are those prefixes that are used as BGPnext hop addresses. These BGP next hop addresses are illustrativelyloopback addresses of the BGP next-hop routers.

As noted, ISP backbone networks require fast convergence in order toprovide a reliable service to its customers. Convergence occurs when allof the routers have a consistent perspective (“view”) of the networktopology. After a topology change, e.g., one or more link and/or nodefailures, the routers re-compute their best paths; this typicallydisrupts the service provided by the ISP. The ISP backbone networks musttherefore be able to react quickly to such failures in order to re-routetraffic over alternate paths and, thus, minimize service disruption.However, not all routes require fast convergence. Typically the routes(addresses) used as BGP next-hop attributes within BGP update messagesare considered most important addresses because they enable connectivityinside and outside of the routing domain. For example, these next-hopaddresses are typically addresses of subnets used to connectservers/gateways; as such, they are considered most important becauseBGP relies on them for external activity, i.e., activity external to therouting domain. Yet, the addresses of subnets used to connect serversand gateways could also be part of an internal routing domain. Here, therouters may connect voice over IP (VoIP) servers, such that all IPtelephony of the routing domain relies on those servers. Therefore it isdesirable to prioritize these next hop addresses to enable fastconvergence.

A known approach used to determine whether addresses advertised by arouting protocol are important for fast convergence involves explicitconfiguration by an administrator (user) of a group of routes. Here, thegroup of routes (addresses) is part of a block of addresses that theuser configures as important on each router. Another, more preciseapproach for determining whether an address advertised by a routingprotocol (such as IGP) is important for fast convergence is based onroute labeling or “route tagging”. An example of route tagging is aconventional ISIS route tag where a user “tags” each important routeneeded for fast convergence with an administrative tag.

However, conventional route tagging requires coordination within thenetwork in the sense that every router must be “manually” configured toprocess (with a predetermined degree of importance) routes having, e.g.,a predetermined tag value. For example, an ISP user/administrator mayconfigure the IGP (ISIS) routing protocol running on each router in itsISP network with a command that specifies routes tagged with apredetermined value are important routes. Thus, a limitation to theconventional use of ISIS route tags is the coordination among routerswithin a routing domain and extensive manual configuration on behalf ofthe administrator in order to implement such coordination. The presentinvention substantially reduces manual configuration required to tagroutes as important.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art byproviding a technique for configuring an intermediate network node toautomatically determine whether a route advertised by a routing protocolis important for fast convergence in a computer network. As used herein,an important route needed for fast convergence is a route advertised bythe routing protocol, such as an exterior gateway routing protocol (EGP)process executing on the node, as a next-hop address, since externalconnectivity relies on such a route. Notably, the EGP process interactswith an interior gateway routing protocol (IGP) process executing on thenode to identify the route as an important route. Identification of animportant route, in turn, allows IGP to process the route in a highpriority fashion, thereby facilitating fast convergence.

In the illustrative embodiment described herein, the intermediatenetwork node is a router and the IGP process is anIntermediate-System-to-Intermediate-System (ISIS) protocol process. Inaddition, the EGP is the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) and, to that end,the important route is a route that represents a BGP next-hop attribute.The inventive technique is illustratively directed to automatically(dynamically) determining such an important route using, e.g., ISISroute tagging. More precisely, the inventive technique allows the routerto detect whether an IGP route is also used as a BGP next-hop attributeand, if so, advertise that route to IGP neighbors in the routing domainusing ISIS route tagging so the neighbors (and router) can process theroute with high priority during convergence.

Operationally, a BGP process executing on a router to inject internalBGP (iBGP) routes into a routing domain also interacts with an IGPprocess executing on the router to identify a local prefix used as a BGPnext hop attribute for those iBGP routes injected into the domain. UsingISIS route tagging, the router tags the local prefix as an importantroute for convergence and advertises that tagged route throughout thedomain. In response, all IGP routers (including the router) within therouting domain may detect the importance of the tagged route and applyhigh priority to the route during convergence processing.

Advantageously, the present invention provides a technique whereby theimportance of a route is determined by an originator of the route, e.g.,the BGP process executing on a router, as opposed to a receiver of theroute, e.g., the IGP process of the router and neighboring routers.Since the originator of the route sets the importance of the route, theinventive technique provides an efficient, “backward compatible”approach to determining whether a route advertised by a routingprotocol, such as BGP, is important for fast convergence in a computernetwork.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and further advantages of the invention may be betterunderstood by referring to the following description in conjunction withthe accompanying drawings in which like reference numbers indicateidentical or functionally similar elements:

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a computer network comprising aplurality of routing domains interconnected by intermediate networknodes, such as routers;

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of a router thatmay be advantageously used with the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram of a conventional network protocolstack, such as the Internet communications protocol stack, within therouter of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram illustrating the architecture of theBorder Gateway Protocol (BGP);

FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram of anIntermediate-System-to-Intermediate-System (ISIS) link stateadvertisement (LSA) that may be advantageously used in accordance withthe present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic block diagram of an illustrative sub-type, length,value (TLV) tuple that may be advantageously used to store one or moreadministrative tags in accordance with the present invention; and

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure for configuring therouter to automatically determine whether a route advertised by arouting protocol, such as BGP, is important for fast convergence in thecomputer network.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF AN ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENT

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a computer network 100 comprisinga plurality of routing domains interconnected by intermediate networknodes. The intermediate network nodes may comprise switches but, in theillustrative embodiment, are routers 200. The routing domains orautonomous systems (AS₁₋₄) are illustratively interconnected by borderrouters 200 a-c via point-to-point communication links 202, such asframe relay links, asynchronous transfer mode links or other seriallinks. The border routers 200 a-c of AS 110 (AS₁) are illustrativelycoupled to routers 200 d-e via subnetworks, such as local area networks204. Communication among the routers 200 is typically effected byexchanging discrete data packets or messages in accordance withpredefined protocols, such as the Transmission Control Protocol/InternetProtocol (TCP/IP). It will be understood to those skilled in the artthat other protocols, such as the Internet Packet Exchange (IPX)protocol, may be advantageously used with the present invention.

Routing decisions within each AS may rely on a predetermined “interior”gateway routing protocol (IGP). An example of an IGP is a conventionallink-state protocol, such as the Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) orIntermediate-System-to-Intermediate-System (ISIS) protocol. In addition,routing information may be exchanged among the ASes 110-140 using an“exterior” gateway protocol (EGP), such as the Border Gateway Protocolversion 4 (BGP). To that end, the BGP-enabled routers (BGP speakers) 200a-c exchange routing information with other BGP speakers that are not inthe same AS using an external form of BGP (eBGP), while the BGP speakers200 a-c within an AS exchange routing information using an internal formof BGP (iBGP).

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of a router 200 that may beadvantageously used as a border router in accordance with the presentinvention. The router 200 comprises a route processor 202 coupled to amemory 204 and a plurality of network interface adapters 210 _(A-C) viaa bus 205. The memory 204 may comprise storage locations addressable bythe processor and interface adapters for storing software programs anddata structures, such as a routing table 235 and topology table 245,respectively, that may be advantageously used with the inventivetechnique described herein. The route processor 202 may compriseprocessing elements or logic for executing the software programs andmanipulating the data structures. It will be apparent to those skilledin the art that other processor and memory means, including variouscomputer readable media, may be used for storing and executing programinstructions pertaining to the inventive technique described herein.

A router operating system 220, portions of which are typically residentin memory 204 and executed by the route processor 202, functionallyorganizes the router by, inter alia, invoking network operations insupport of software processes executing on the router. In one embodimentof the invention, the operating system 220 may be implemented as asingle process with a large memory address space, wherein pieces of codewithin that process provide operating system services, such as one ormore routing protocols. Yet, in the illustrative embodiment, theoperating system services may be implemented as separately-scheduledprocesses in distinct, protected address spaces. These softwareprocesses, each with its own process address space, execute on therouter to manage resources internal to the router and, in the case of arouting protocol, to interact with users. As described herein, thesesoftware processes include routing information base (RIB 230) androuting protocol modules, such as IGP 240 and BGP 400. Communicationamong the processes is typically effected by the exchange of messages; aknown message-passing mechanism provided by router operating system 220to transfer information between processes (and process address spaces)is the Inter Process Communication (IPC) mechanism.

A key function of the router 200 is determining the next node to which apacket is sent; in order to accomplish such “routing” the routerscooperate to determine optimal paths through the computer network 100.The routing function is preferably performed by an internetwork layer ofa conventional protocol stack within each router. FIG. 3 is a schematicblock diagram of a conventional network protocol stack, such as theInternet communications protocol stack 300. The architecture of theInternet protocol stack is represented by 4 layers termed, in ascendinginterfacing order, the network interface layer 308, the internetworklayer 306, the transport layer 304 and the application layer 302.

The lower network interface layer 308 is generally standardized andimplemented in hardware and firmware, whereas the higher layers aretypically implemented in the form of software. The primary internetworklayer protocol of the Internet architecture is the IP protocol. IP isprimarily a connectionless protocol that provides for internetworkrouting, fragmentation and reassembly of exchanged packets—generallyreferred to as “datagrams” in an Internet environment—and which relieson transport protocols for end-to-end reliability. An example of such atransport protocol is the TCP protocol, which is implemented by thetransport layer 304 and provides connection-oriented services to theupper layer protocols of the Internet architecture. The term TCP/IP iscommonly used to denote the Internet architecture.

In particular, the internetwork layer 306 concerns the protocol andalgorithms that routers utilize so that they can cooperate to calculatepaths through the computer network 100. IGP 240, such as OSPF or,illustratively, ISIS, is an intra-domain routing protocol that may beused to perform routing (for the internetwork layer 306) within eachrouting domain of the computer network 100. As noted, IGP 240 maintainsa topology table 245 that is configured to store a database of theentire set of nodes and links in the network. This database is providedas an input to a shortest path first (SPF) calculation, e.g., theDijkstra algorithm, which output is used to construct a shortest pathtree (SPT). The SPT is the set of shortest paths, e.g., from the routerthat computes the algorithm, to any other router in the network. The SPTis thus a subset of the entire database of links and nodes that resultsfrom essentially pruning the database. The output of SPT computation isthen provided to the RIB 230. That is, the IGP process 240 provides tothe RIB 230 all address prefixes that have been advertised by othernodes in the network that are part of the SPT. The RIB then computes(installs) those prefixes into its routing table 235.

The Border Gateway Protocol version 4 (BGP) is an inter-domain routingprotocol used to perform routing (for the internetwork layer 306)between routing domains (e.g., ASes) of the computer network. BGPspeakers within the ASes (hereinafter “neighbors”) exchange routing andreachability information among the ASes over a reliable transport layerconnection, such as TCP. An adjacency is a relationship formed betweenselected neighbors for the purpose of exchanging routing messages andabstracting the network topology. The BGP protocol uses the TCPtransport layer 304 to ensure reliable communication of routing messagesamong the neighbors.

In order to perform routing operations in accordance with the BGPprotocol, each BGP speaker 200 a-c maintains a routing table that listsall feasible paths to a particular network. The routers further exchangerouting information using BGP routing update messages when their routingtables change. The routing update messages are generated by an updatingrouter to advertise routes to each of its neighbors throughout thecomputer network. These routing updates allow the BGP routers of theASes to construct a consistent and up-to-date view of the networktopology.

FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram illustrating the architecture of theBGP protocol 400. BGP neighbors announce routing updates via TCPconnections 402. The BGP protocol “listens” for routing update messagesand stores all learned routes for each connection in a BGP database. TheBGP database is illustratively organized as Adjacency RIB In (Adj-RIB-In410), Adjacency RIB Out (Adj-RIB-Out 440) and local RIB (loc-RIB 420).Each neighbor/TCP connection 402 is associated with an Adj-RIB-In 410and an Adj-RIB-Out 440. Note that this association is a conceptual dataconstruct; there is typically not a separate Adj-RIB-In/-Out databasefor each neighbor.

The BGP protocol 400 runs inbound policy on all routes “learned” foreach connection 402 and those routes that match are stored in anAdj-RIB-In 410 unique to that connection. Additional inbound policy 450(filtering) is then applied to those stored routes, with a potentiallymodified route being installed in the Loc-RIB 420. The Loc-RIB 420 isgenerally responsible for performing a BGP best path computation thatselects the best route per prefix from the union of all policy-modifiedAdj-RIB-In routes, resulting in routes referred to as “best paths”. Theset of best paths is then installed in the routing table 235 of RIB 230,where they may contend with routes from other protocols (such as IGP240) to become the “optimal” path ultimately selected for forwarding.Thereafter, the set of best paths have outbound policy 460 run on them,the result of which is placed in appropriate Adj-RIB-Out 440 andannounced to the respective neighbors via the same TCP connections 402from which routing update messages were learned.

In addition to providing a best path per prefix, the Loc-RIB 420 alsoprovides the RIB 230 with a next hop attribute associated with that bestpath. That is, the route (best path per prefix) that BGP provides to theRIB includes an indication of the next hop address to that prefix.Notably, the next hop attribute (address) sent to the RIB 230 must beresident in the routing table 235 through another protocol (e.g., IGP240). The BGP process 400 ensures that the next hop attribute isreachable within IGP prior to sending the best path to the RIB byperforming certain validations or checks to the route, one of which isto verify that the next hop attribute is known by the RIB as a validroute. To that end, BGP 400 performs a look up operation into the RIB230 (e.g., via the IPC mechanism) to verify that the next hop of thebest path is already known (resident) in the routing table 235.

As noted, BGP-enabled routers 200 a-c exchange routing information(i.e., external routes) with other BGP-enabled routers that are not inthe same AS using eBGP. In response, each router 200 a-c propagates(advertises) those externally “learned” BGP routes as BGP originatedroutes to its internal BGP neighbors within the AS using iBGP. That is,each BGP-enabled router advertises (injects) externally learned routesinto its routing domain as iBGP routes using conventional BGP updatemessages. Yet since it is a router, the BGP-enabled router also executesthe IGP protocol to thereby enable it to participate in both BGP and IGProuting. In this context, the BGP/IGP enabled router (hereinaftergenerally “BGP originator 200”) performs (i) BGP routing to propagateexternal routes inside the AS and (ii) IGP routing to further propagatethose routes as iBGP routes used as BGP next hop attributes. The BGPoriginator 200 advertises the external routes to its iBGP neighbors byidentifying itself as the next hop address for those routes. In otherwords, the next hop address of the routes that the originator 200advertises to its neighbors is, in fact, an IP loopback address of theoriginator. The IGP (ISIS) process 240 enables the BGP originator 200 toadvertise its loopback address within an LSA that is sent to its IGPneighbors.

The present invention is directed to a technique for configuring anintermediate network node, such as a router, to automatically determinewhether a route advertised by a routing protocol is important for fastconvergence in a computer network. As used herein, an important routeneeded for fast convergence is a route advertised by the routingprotocol, such as BGP 400, as a next-hop address, since externalconnectivity relies on such a route. Notably, the BGP process 400interacts with the IGP process 240 to identify the route as an importantroute. Identification of an important route, in turn, allows IGP toprocess the route in a high priority fashion, thereby facilitating fastconvergence.

In the illustrative embodiment, the IGP process is the ISIS protocolprocess and the important route is a route that represents a BGPnext-hop attribute. The inventive technique is thus illustrativelydirected to automatically (dynamically) determining such an importantroute using, e.g., ISIS route tagging. More precisely, the inventivetechnique allows the router to detect whether an IGP route is also usedas a BGP next-hop attribute and, if so, advertise that route to IGPneighbors in the routing domain using ISIS route tagging so theneighbors (and router) can process the route with high priority duringconvergence. The router illustratively advertises the route via an IGPadvertisement embodied as an LSA (e.g., an ISIS LSP).

An ISIS LSP may be used to distribute IP prefix reachability informationthroughout an ISIS routing domain (such as, e.g., an area, level or AS)using one or more type, length and value (TLV) tuples. For instance, an“extended IP reachability” TLV (type 135) is typically included in anLSP to advertise, among other things, IP prefixes to IGP neighbors. Theextended IP reachability TLV is described in more detail in RFC 3784, byH. Smit and T. Li, published June 2004, entitled Intermediate System toIntermediate System (IS-IS) Extensions for Traffic Engineering (TE)which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram of an ISIS LSA (LSP) 500 that may beadvantageously used in accordance with the present invention. The LSP500 comprises a conventional LSP header 510 and one or more TLV tuples520. The LSP header 510 stores, among other things, the LSP's ISISversion number, sequence number and relative “age”, as well asauthentication data and other packet-related information. Each TLV tuple520 includes a type field 522, a length field 524 and a value field 526.The type field 522 indicates the type of information stored in the valuefield 526. The length field 524 identifies the length, usually inoctets, of the TLV 520. The value field 526 stores the specific valuetransported by the TLV.

An example of a TLV tuple contained in the LSP 500 is an extended IPreachability TLV 530 that is extended to carry an address prefixreachable from a particular IGP router. To that end, the “extendedreachability TLV” 530 is organized to include a type field 532containing a predetermined type value (e.g., a “type 135” or “extendedIP reachability” TLV), as defined in above-referenced RFC 3784. Thelength field 534 is a variable length value. The value field 536illustratively contains, inter alia, the reachable address prefix 540,along with one ore more sub-TLVs 550, each having a type field 552,length field 554 and value field 556. The fields of the sub-TLV(s) 550may be used in a variety of manners including, for example, ISIS routetagging.

FIG. 6 is a schematic block diagram of an illustrative sub-TLV tuple 600that may be advantageously used to store one or more administrative tagsin accordance with the present invention. The administrative tag sub-TLVis described in Internet Draftwww.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-isis-admin-tags-02.txt, July2004, entitled A Policy Control Mechanism in IS-IS Using AdministrativeTags, by C. Martin et al., which is hereby incorporated by reference asthough fully set forth herein. The administrative tag sub-TLV 600comprises a type field 602, a length field 604 and a value field 606.The type field 602 stores a value that identifies the sub-TLV 600 as anadministrative tag sub-TLV. The length field 604 stores the length, inoctets, of the sub-TLV 600. The value field 606 is configured to storeone or more instances of administrative tag information 610. Accordingto the invention, the administrative tag information 610 may be used tospecify that the reachable address prefix (“local prefix”) 540 stored inthe extended IP reachability TLV 530 of LSP 500 is an important routefor convergence.

Operationally, the BGP process 400 executing on router 200 to injectiBGP routes into the routing domain also interacts with IGP process 240executing on the router to identify a local prefix used as a BGP nexthop attribute for those iBGP routes injected into the domain. Inparticular, BGP 400 issues an IPC message (or function call) thatinforms IGP 240 that (i) BGP has advertised one or more iBGP routesusing this local (address) prefix as the BGP next hop and (ii) if thisaddress is advertised in IGP, tag those routes as important. Tagging, inthis context, denotes route tagging and, as such, illustratively appliesto the ISIS routing protocol implementation of the IGP.

Using ISIS route tagging, the router tags the local prefix as animportant route for convergence and advertises that tagged routethroughout the domain. For example, IGP 240 creates a LSP 500 with anextended IP reachability TLV 530 containing, inter alia, the reachableaddress prefix 540 and the administrative tag sub-TLV 600. The IGPprocess then inserts predetermined administrative tag information 610into value field 606 that essentially tags the reachable address prefix(local prefix) 540 as important for convergence. In other words, therouter 200 uses the administrative tag information 610 to tag the localprefix 540 advertised via IGP as important because that prefix/route isthe next hop address of all the externally learned BGP routes. Inresponse, all IGP routers (including the router 200) within the routingdomain may detect the importance of the tagged route and apply highpriority to the route during convergence processing.

In the illustrative embodiment, the IGP process 240 executing on therouter 200 (and IGP neighbors) maintains a list of routes (prefixes)considered important for fast convergence. The list (not shown) isillustratively embodied as a data structure containing one or moreentries, each of which is configured to store a prefix and a next hopaddress attribute denoting an important route. At each subsequentrouting change requiring re-computation of its topology table and updateof the RIB's routing table 235, IGP 240 processes these important routesbefore other routes.

Specifically, during fast convergence, the IGP process 240 operates onthe content of its topology table 245 to compute a SPT and updates theRIB 230 in order to reflect the changes in the topology. Updating of theRIB 230 generally implies (i) removing prefixes, (ii) adding prefixes,and/or (iiii) modifying prefixes in the routing table 235. Thus, theprefixes that comprise the computed SPT are either (i) removed(deleted), (ii) added (installed) or (iii) modified (updated) in therouting table. Since it has been notified of the importance of certainroutes/prefixes, IGP 240 processes (e.g., updates the RIB with) thoseimportant prefixes first to facilitate fast convergence.

Processing of important prefixes first facilitates fast convergencebecause the RIB process is a large (and time consuming) component offast convergence. Computing an SPT takes only a few milliseconds,whereas computing or updating the routing table maintained by the RIBmay take several hundreds of milliseconds. In this context, processingof important routes (prefixes) first facilitates convergence. Also, anIGP typically sends update information to the RIB sequentially and, asit receives and processes those updates, the RIB may constantly(sequentially) populate the FIB. In this manner, a forwarding engineoperates on the FIB to render forwarding decisions using the results ofthose important processed routes.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure for configuring therouter to automatically determine whether a route advertised by arouting protocol, such as BGP, is important for fast convergence in thecomputer network. The procedure starts at Step 700 and proceeds to Step702 where a router (e.g., a BGP originator) receives from an eBGPneighbor one or more external BGP routes. In Step 704, the BGPoriginator advertises those BGP routes to its IBGP neighbors within therouting domain (AS) using one or more conventional BGP update messagesthat include a local address (i.e., loopback address) of the BGPoriginator as the next hop attribute. In Step 706, the BGP process 400executing in the iBGP neighbors (and BGP originator) signals the IGPprocess 240 (e.g., via an IPC message or function call) to automaticallytag this next hop address, which is also known to be advertised in theIGP, as important. Note that the loopback address had been previouslyadvertised through IGP (ISIS), as determined by BGP 400 when performinga query (lookup operation) into its RIB 230 (described above).

In Step 708 the IGP process 240 executing in the BGP originator tags thelocal prefix/route as an important route for convergence (e.g., inaccordance with ISIS route tagging). According to the invention, anyaddress that is used as BGP next hop attribute is important forconvergence. Therefore, rather than having an administrator configureeach router to tag a particular local route with a predetermined valuebecause it is an important route, the invention enables BGP to cooperatewith IGP in order to tag the route dynamically. In Step 710, IGPadvertises that tagged route to IGP neighbors (routers) throughout thedomain. In response, all IGP routers (including the BGP originator)within the routing domain may detect the importance of the tagged routeso that, in Step 712, the IGP process 240 may apply high priority to thetagged route during convergence processing. The procedure then ends atStep 714.

Advantageously, the present invention provides a technique whereby theimportance of a route is determined by an originator of the route, e.g.,the BGP process executing on a router, as opposed to a receiver of theroute, e.g., the IGP process of the router and neighboring routers.Since the originator of the route sets the importance of the route, theinventive technique provides an efficient, “backward compatible”approach to determining whether a route advertised by a routingprotocol, such as BGP, is important for fast convergence in a computernetwork.

While there has been shown and described an illustrative embodiment thatconfigures an intermediate network node to automatically determinewhether a route advertised by a routing protocol is important for fastconvergence in a computer network, it is to be understood that variousother adaptations and modifications may be made within the spirit andscope of the present invention. For example, in an alternate embodimentof the invention, other IGP protocols, such as OSPF, may be configuredto achieve the principles of the present invention. Although tagging ofimportant routes is not currently fully deployable within OSPF, there isactivity around extensions to the OSPF protocol that would enabletagging of routes. Yet until it is extended in order to fully supportroute tags on every route, implementations of the OSPF protocol may haveto cope with certain topological constraints/limitations.

The foregoing description has been directed to specific embodiments ofthis invention. It will be apparent, however, that other variations andmodifications may be made to the described embodiments, with theattainment of some or all of their advantages. For instance, it isexpressly contemplated that the teachings of this invention can beimplemented as software, including a computer-readable medium havingprogram instructions executing on a computer, hardware, firmware, or acombination thereof. In addition, it is understood that the datastructures described herein can include additional information whileremaining within the scope of the present invention. Accordingly thisdescription is to be taken only by way of example and not to otherwiselimit the scope of the invention. Therefore, it is the object of theappended claims to cover all such variations and modifications as comewithin the true spirit and scope of the invention.

1. A method comprising: executing an inter-domain routing protocol on anintermediate network node to inject externally learned routes into arouting domain; issuing one of an inter process communication messageand a function call, from the inter-domain routing protocol to anintra-domain routing protocol on the intermediate network node, toidentify a local prefix used as an inter-domain next hop attribute forthe externally learned routes injected into the routing domain; taggingthe local prefix used as an inter-domain next hop attribute as animportant route for convergence to indicate that the local prefix is tobe processed before other local prefixes, that have not been used as aninter-domain next hop attribute, during convergence processing; andadvertising the tagged local prefix throughout the routing domain toinform other intermediate network nodes in the routing domain of theimportance of the tagged local prefix and that the other intermediatenetwork nodes should apply high priority to the tagged local prefix toprocess the tagged local prefix before other local prefixes, that havenot been used as an inter-domain next hop attribute, during convergenceprocessing.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the inter-domain routingprotocol is an exterior gateway protocol (EGP).
 3. The method of claim 2wherein the EGP is a Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).
 4. The method ofclaim 1 wherein the intra-domain routing protocol is an interior gatewayprotocol (IGP).
 5. The method of claim 4 wherein the IGP is anIntermediate-System-to-Intermediate-System (ISIS) protocol.
 6. Themethod of claim 1 wherein the intermediate net-work node is a router. 7.The method of claim 1 wherein the step of tagging the local prefix as animportant route for convergence further comprises tagging the localprefix as an important route for fast convergence.
 8. The method ofclaim 1 wherein convergence is an ability to react to failures torecover from those failures, and convergence processing is processing toreact to failures to recover from those failures.
 9. A systemcomprising: an inter-domain routing protocol executing on anintermediate network node, the inter-domain routing protocol configuredto inject externally learned routes into a routing domain, and to issuean inter process communication message or a function call, from theinter-domain routing protocol to an intra-domain routing protocolexecuting on the intermediate network node, that identifies a localprefix used as an inter-domain next hop attribute for the externallylearned routes injected into the routing domain; and the intra-domainrouting protocol executing on the intermediate network node, theintra-domain routing protocol configured to receive the inter processcommunication message or the function call from the inter-domain routingprotocol that identifies the local prefix used as an inter-domain nexthop attribute for the externally learned routes injected into therouting domain, the intra-domain routing protocol further configured totag the local prefix used as an inter-domain next hop attribute as animportant route for convergence to indicate that the local prefix is tobe processed before other local prefixes, that have not been used as aninter-domain next hop attribute, during convergence processing andadvertise the tagged important local prefix throughout the routingdomain to inform other intermediate network nodes in the routing domainof the importance of the tagged local prefix and that the otherintermediate network nodes should apply high priority to the taggedlocal prefix to process the tagged local prefix before other localprefixes, that have not been used as an inter-domain next hop attribute,during convergence processing.
 10. The system of claim 9 wherein theinter-domain routing protocol is an exterior gateway protocol (EGP). 11.The system of claim 10 wherein the EGP is a Border Gateway Protocol(BGP).
 12. The system of claim 11 wherein the externally learned routesare internal BGP (iBGP) routes originated by the intermediate networknode.
 13. The system of claim 12 wherein the local prefix is a loopbackaddress of the intermediate network node.
 14. The system of claim 9wherein the intra-domain routing protocol is an interior gatewayprotocol (IGP).
 15. The system of claim 14 wherein the IGP is anIntermediate-System-to-Intermediate-System (ISIS) protocol.
 16. Thesystem of claim 9 wherein convergence is an ability to react to failuresto recover from those failures, and convergence processing is processingto react to failures to recover from those failures.
 17. An apparatuscomprising: means for executing an inter-domain routing protocol on anintermediate network node to inject externally learned routes into arouting domain; means for issuing an inter process communication messageor a function call, from the inter-domain routing protocol, to anintra-domain routing protocol executing on the intermediate networknode, to identify a local prefix used as an inter-domain next hopattribute for the externally learned routes injected into the routingdomain; means for tagging the local prefix used as an inter-domain nexthop attribute as an important route for convergence to indicate that thelocal prefix is to be processed before other local prefixes, that havenot been used as an inter-domain next hop attribute, during convergenceprocessing; and means for advertising the tagged local prefix throughoutthe routing domain to in-form other intermediate network nodes in therouting domain of the importance of the tagged local prefix and that theother intermediate network nodes should apply high priority to thetagged local prefix to process the tagged local prefix before otherlocal prefixes, that have not been used as an inter-domain next hopattribute, during convergence processing.
 18. A non-transitory computerreadable medium containing executable program instructions, theexecutable program instructions comprising program instructions for:executing an inter-domain routing protocol on an intermediate networknode to inject externally learned routes into a routing domain; issuingan inter process communication message or a function call, from theinter-domain routing protocol to an intra-domain routing protocolexecuting on the intermediate network node, to identify a local prefixused as an inter-domain next hop attribute for the externally learnedroutes injected into the routing domain; tagging the local prefix usedas an inter-domain next hop attribute as an important route forconvergence to indicate that the local prefix is to be processed beforeother local prefixes, that have not been used as an inter-domain nexthop attribute, during convergence processing; and advertising the taggedlocal prefix throughout the routing domain to inform other intermediatenetwork nodes in the routing domain of the importance of the taggedlocal prefix and that the other intermediate network nodes should applyhigh priority to the tagged local prefix to process the tagged localprefix before other local prefixes, that have not been used as aninter-domain next hop attribute, during convergence processing.